House Speaker John Boehner, center, re-enacts the swearing-in of Reps. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, left, and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. This is Latham's 10th term and Nunes' sixth term in Congress. / J. Scott Applewhite, AP

by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of term limits for Congress, even though they re-elected 90% of incumbent lawmakers in the 2012 election.

A new Gallup Poll finds that three-fourths of Americans say they would vote for term limits for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate if they could, compared with 21% who are opposed.

Gallup says those findings track surveys taken 1994 to 1996. That period is when the Newt Gingrich-led House GOP majority pushed term limits as part of its Contract with America legislative agenda. Term limits went nowhere in the Senate and they have not been much of an issue since in Congress.

Gallup finds support for term limits to be universal, with Americans in both political parties, independents and people of every age group backing them. Democrats have the lowest level of support, at 65%.

Supporters of term limits say they're needed to get rid of career politicians and inject new blood and fresh perspectives into legislative bodies. The irony is that this poll comes as the newly sworn-in 113th Congress is one of the most inexperienced since 1995, reports USA TODAY's Susan Davis.

The flip side is that there are few things more consistent about Congress than the fact that sitting lawmakers generally don't have a hard time winning re-election. Going back to 1964, the re-election rate for House members has topped 80% for every two-year election cycle, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

In 2012, voters returned 90% of sitting House members and 91% of the senators up for re-election to Washington.